3GPP to EPS Converter

3GPP to EPS: a Video Frame Wrapped for Print Workflows

EPS — Encapsulated PostScript — is the format print and layout tools have accepted for decades: a self-contained PostScript fragment with a declared bounding box that a page-layout application can place, scale and print. This page decodes one frame from a .3gpp phone recording and writes it as an EPS. What it does not do is turn the picture into vector artwork. The frame is embedded as a raster inside the PostScript wrapper, so what you get is a pixel image that InDesign, QuarkXPress, Illustrator, CorelDRAW or a print RIP will accept — not lines and curves.

How to Convert 3GPP to EPS

1. Upload Your 3GPP File: Drag and drop the .3gpp onto the page or click "+ Add Files". Several clips can be queued and they share the same frame-selection settings.
2. Choose Frame Selection and the Time: "Specific Frame" is preselected; type the moment into "Time (seconds)", where 0 is the opening frame and decimals such as 6.5 are accepted. "Multiple Screenshots" instead walks the clip at a "Capture Rate" from ten images a second down to one every ten seconds.
3. Set the Image Resolution: On an EPS target the resolution group offers just two options — "Keep original", which is preselected, and "Resolution Percentage", which scales the frame proportionally. The bounding box follows whatever you choose.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and place the .eps in your layout. A run of screenshots produces one EPS per captured frame. No sign-up, no watermark.

What the EPS Actually Contains

The ASCII-hex encoding is why these files are large. Every byte of image data becomes two printable characters plus line breaks, so an EPS runs to roughly six bytes per pixel — around twenty times the size of the same frame as a JPEG, and several times a PNG. That is the price of a format that will survive any print pipeline without a binary-safe transport.

Size on the Page and Size on Disk

Because one pixel becomes one point and there are 72 points to an inch, a frame's placed size is fixed the moment it is converted — and phone-video frames are small, so they are small on paper too:

All four are measured files. Placing one at 100% gives you a 72 dpi image, which is fine on screen and poor in print — so scale it down in the layout to raise the effective resolution. A CIF frame placed at a quarter of its natural size occupies 1.22 x 1.00 inches at roughly 288 dpi, which prints acceptably. Scaling up does the opposite and shows every pixel of the original phone footage.

Setting "Resolution Percentage" before converting changes both numbers together: a CIF frame at 80% becomes a 282 x 230 point box in a 399,845-byte file. Use it to trim the file size when the frame is going to be placed small anyway; use the layout application's own scaling when you want the image data left intact.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this vectorise my video frame?

No, and no tool honestly can from a photograph. The frame is embedded as a raster image inside the PostScript wrapper — EPS is a container for PostScript drawing instructions, and one of the things PostScript can draw is a bitmap. What you gain is compatibility with print and layout software that expects EPS; what you do not gain is scalability. Enlarging the placed image enlarges the pixels.

Why is the EPS so much bigger than the whole video?

Because the image data is written as ASCII hexadecimal with no compression, which costs about six bytes per pixel — we measured 159,708 bytes for a 176 x 144 frame and 12,606,819 bytes for a 1920 x 1080 one. A 3GPP clip, by contrast, stores mostly differences between frames using a lossy codec. The EPS is large by design: printable-ASCII output survives any file transfer or print queue that might mangle binary data.

What size will the image be when I place it in a layout?

Exactly its pixel dimensions in points, because the conversion pins one pixel to one point. At 72 points per inch, a 352 x 288 frame arrives as a 4.89 x 4.00 inch box. Since that is only 72 dpi, scale it down in your layout — to a quarter size for roughly 288 dpi — rather than accepting the default placement for anything that will be printed.

Can I change the DPI of the EPS?

Not on this page; the density is fixed at 72 and there is no control for it. The lever you do have is "Resolution Percentage", which changes how many pixels are in the file and therefore how big the bounding box is. Everything else about the physical size is decided in the layout application, where scaling the placed image up or down changes its effective resolution accordingly.

Why can I only choose "Keep original" or a percentage for the resolution?

Because that is what the panel offers on an EPS target — the preset heights and the explicit width and height fields that appear on other image targets are not shown here. In practice it is enough: the bounding box is derived from the pixel dimensions, and a percentage scales both together while keeping the aspect ratio intact.

Will the EPS open in Photoshop or Illustrator?

Yes, both read EPS, but expect a raster. Illustrator will place the file and show the image without any editable paths, and Photoshop will rasterise it on open and ask you at what resolution — an option worth using, since it lets you land on 300 dpi at a size of your choosing. Neither can recover vector geometry that was never there.

Can I get several frames as EPS files in one job?

Yes. Switch "Frame Selection" to "Multiple Screenshots" and choose a capture rate; each captured frame becomes its own EPS, and you can download them individually or as a ZIP. Watch the total size — at roughly six bytes per pixel, a dense capture rate over a long clip produces a great many megabytes.

The frame I got is black or blurred. What went wrong?

Probably nothing beyond the moment you chose. The preselected time is 0, and phone recordings often open on a dark or half-focused frame. Enter a non-zero time such as 2.0, or take several candidates with "Multiple Screenshots" and keep the sharpest. Note also that "Time (seconds)" is seconds with decimals — a moment at 1 minute 5 seconds is 65, not 1.05.

Should I use EPS at all, or is there a better format?

Use EPS when a print workflow or a layout application specifically calls for it, or when a client's spec sheet names it. For every other purpose a raster format is smaller and easier: 3GPP to PNG is a fraction of the size, 3GPP to TIFF is the more usual print-industry raster, and 3GPP to JPG is the right answer for anything heading to a screen.

How are my files handled, and how long do you keep them?

Your clip is uploaded over an encrypted connection, decoded on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after conversion — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public. 3GPP recordings upload quickly; the EPS coming back is usually much larger than the video that produced it, so allow for the download rather than the upload here.